Serious Multitaskers Can Have 43 Hour Days?

from the ah,-those-43-hours-days dept

Not quite sure what to make of this, but, for those of you who complain about there not being enough hours in the day, you should be happier that you live in a world with the technology we have today. Rather than changing around your sleep schedule to squeeze in those extra hours, Yahoo thinks you should just be multitasking. According to a new study (sponsored by Yahoo) new technologies allow families to cram 43 hours of activity into a single day. Of course, it's not really clear what this means, and the article only suggests it's the result of people multi-tasking, and doing things that overlap (like surfing the web while watching TV). But, from the short description, it's not really clear if those things should really be counted as additional hours. Is surfing the internet a separate task from instant messaging? The article makes it sound like it's counted that way. Plus, even when people are multitasking like that, they're not giving their full attention to most of the things they're doing -- so it seems unrealistic to count them as additional "hours." Even then, it's hard to see how all of that is going to add an extra 19 hours to your day. It might have been a more interesting study if it meant people had an extra 19 hours compared to some time in the past. Things like dishwashers, washing machines and other types of technology clearly do save some time -- but it doesn't sound like that's what this study covered. Either way, even if it's true that we have so many more hours of "stuff happening" in a day, it seems to have the opposite effect of more time on most people. Plenty of people simply feel overwhelmed, and feel that they get less done with so much going on all the time.

Polyphasic sleeping worked for me though

Heya,

Just wanted to say that Polyphasic Sleeping worked for me, I just couldn't continue doing this because I drove my girlfriend crazy being on such a sleeping pattern. I tried this for almost a week and the amount of hours I gained every day was stunning. Midnight coding never seemed so easy.

The truth of TimeCube proves this, dumbasses

Geez this sounds eerily like the acclaimed internet celebrity and paranoid schizophrenic Gene Ray and his insane TimeCube rantings (http://www.timecube.com). According to him there are 4 simultaneous 24 hour days, so really we should be able to take advantage of 96 hours each day!

I contend that there are 8 simultaneous days, but scientists won't consider my TimeOctahedron theory because they are dumbasses and evil.

Its not a matter of saving time...

the problem is as soon as someone figures out a way to save time they immediatly try to figure out a way to sqeeze in a new activity or task. Corporations are espcially bad for this. Why do you think they are willing to give their people fancy laptops, cell phones, and blackberries? By giving that stuff them they have essentially taken control of a majority of their day by expecting them to answer their phone, email, or whatever at damn near anytime of day.

Re: Its not a matter of saving time...

A better question is...

...(for investors of Yahoo, of which I am not)... why is Yahoo wasting its $$ on a study to determine such things? How does it add to the bottom line? Should it be implied that if I Yahoo search, IM and web surf their content I can get another 19 hours into my day?

Re: Times A Wasting

I'm breathing, typing, and thinking at the same time (look, no hands!!!). How much am I saving compared to how much I just lost?
TechDirt is my favorite site to read off the wall articles that resemble poor comedic attempts such as those made by Al Franken-stein.

Washing machines do NOT save time

A study found people spent the same amount of time each week handling laundry, the only difference was with a washing machine the clothes were washed much more often (i.e. worn once instead of four or five times before washing). The real winners here were clothing manufacturers, as more wash=more wear, so clothes have to be replaced quicker.

The old dishwashers that required you to wash the dishes first didn't save much time, either.